Your girlfriend's best friend
by AniZH
Summary: Beck starts to understand why Jade and Cat became friends and how Jade can trust Cat with taking care of her little brother.


Finally, finally: Hello again!  
I haven't uploaded anything for so long. Gosh. I also haven't written anything during that time, which is the worst. I just have to work a lot at the moment and otherwise don't do anything, somehow. I also don't think I have that many more stories to tell in this fandom though there are still a few ideas waiting to be written - also a few requests from readers. But please, feel free to remind me if you wished for something which I haven't written yet. Or make a new request, though obviously I can't promise anything.  
I got the idea for this one shot through two requests of the user Boris Yeltsin - thank you for those.  
This one shot takes place early in Beck and Jade's relationship.  
Everyone, enjoy the read!

* * *

Beck can't wait to get his driver's license. Mainly because he wants to be able to pick Jade up for dates. He also does that now. He often rides the bus to her house first, or goes there by foot, or has one of his parents drive him, for them to then take the bus together elsewhere. Or walk to a close-by restaurant they both enjoy, or alike.

He's arriving at her house right now. Jade opens the door before he can ring the door bell.

"Come in," she tells him, her phone in her hand.

He's not surprised to be asked inside. It happens that Jade isn't ready yet and he has to wait in the house for a while – at least when her mother isn't home. When she is home, Jade usually is ready at the door when Beck comes to get her as she finds her mother and Beck talking embarrassing – Beck doesn't know for whom.

At the moment, Jade's mother is gone for a few days on a business trip, so Beck expected to be invited inside.

What he didn't expect is Jasper, Jade's five year old brother, sitting on the couch. Beck knows that he should be with his father while their mother is gone.

"Hi, there," he tells him with a smile and the boy responds: "Hello."

They have met before. Beck likes him and has the feeling the boy likes him back, which he's happy about, as he means the world to Jade.

Right now, Jasper doesn't even smile at him though, but looks a bit grumpy instead.

Beck also honestly wonders what he's doing home. Jade is about to go out with him, Beck. Jade's and Jasper's mother is gone on a business trip. There will be nobody else home. Jasper was supposed to be staying with his father, as far as Beck knows.

Jade explains before he's able to think of words that don't make it sound to Jasper as if he wasn't welcomed around: "His father dropped him off just now. Some work emergency or whatever."

"Oh," Beck makes.

He doesn't know what else to say. His first thought is along the lines of: 'Great! That's it for our date.' It's begrudging as he can't stand anything interferring into his time with Jade.

But his next thought is that it obviously isn't Jasper's fault, that he also can't feel too great about being dropped off here by his father. Beck knows that Jasper loves his father and loves spending time with him.

Before Beck is able to think further, Jade says: "I'm gonna call Cat to watch him."

Cat? Really? Cat of all people?

Beck first wants to ask why she doesn't call her grandparents but he's quick to remember that her grandparents aren't all that trustworthy with children. Jade told him that they babysat her regularly when she was small and left her alone when they had stuff to do though the whole point of her mother bringing her to her grandparents was for her not to be alone but watched. He never would want Jasper to have to go there alone.

But there must still be other choices than Cat, right? For example: "We can also watch him."

Yeah, he might've liked to be alone with Jade but sometimes life isn't going the way you want it to. And he honestly likes Jasper too, so why not spend time with the boy?

Jasper shakes his head though, of course having listened to them: "No, you go on your date. Cat is fun."

"See?" Jade easily says. "I already asked him if he was fine with it." Suddenly, she narrows her eyes at him: "Or don't you want to enjoy our date alone?"

As if he ever wouldn't. He loves to be alone with her so much. Because it's easy. He feels so extremely comfortable around her, like around nobody else. It's freeing.

"I do," he therefore is quick to say. "But are you sure Cat will want to do it?"

"Of course she will," Jade says. "And she owes me one."

"For what?" Beck asks surprised.

Jade smirks: "For everything."

.

.

Beck doesn't say anything more about it while Jade calls Cat and they wait for her. Instead he entertains Jasper a bit and asks him what he has done since he has last seen him with the boy having a lot to report.

He remembers why he has doubts about all of this when Cat arrives not too long after, all excited, bouncing inside the house, a small bag with her.

How can anybody ever give her the responsibility of looking after a child? She behaves like she's five herself as she does a fistbump with Jasper, being way to giddy about it.

Jade doesn't seem to think about it. Though she loves Jasper. Well, and she wouldn't leave him with anyone she doesn't trust, right? But how can she ever trust Cat with anything, but especially a child? He never would in a million years. But it's not his decision to make, he knows.

"You sure you wanna leave him alone with her?" he asks.

Jade doesn't even seem to fully listen. She's checking if she has all her things on her, phone, keys, money, as she answes: "Yes." Then she's already on her way to the door: "Come on."

Before Beck can even follow her, she turns to Cat again though: "You call if something happens, yes?"

"Of course," Cat says. "Can we go out?"

Jade considers it for a moment, then: "Yes, but only to places you've been before."

"Sure!" Cat says, clapping her hands excitedly

.

.

Beck worries at first about Cat and Jasper. Cat can barely take care of herself, how can she take care of a five year old? And how the hell can Jade trust her?

He knows it's not like Jade was so desperate to go on their date that she would've just left her dear little brother with anyone. She loves Jasper and would never let anything happen to him. But then let him be watched by Cat?

He doesn't know what it is between Jade and Cat. He doesn't understand their friendship.

Jade lets him forget all about it though. She always makes him forget everything when they are alone. Not just by being physical or anything but also by just being herself, talking to him, smiling.

He remembers his worries of course when he brings Jade back home and catches Cat and Jasper also just coming back from whatever adventure they went on.

Jade pulls Beck with her inside the house and there, Cat and Jasper tell all about how they had fun in the house for a while and then went to Cat's to get an old lego set of her brother's.

They brought that with them now and Jasper wants to build it.

"He will want to keep it," Jade informs Cat sceptical and Cat beams at her: "He can. I asked my brother and it's fine with him. He never liked lego anyway."

That's enough for Jade and she turns to Beck: "Wanna stay for a moment?"

He nods. He'd love to. And somehow, he and Jade end up sitting on the counter of the kitchen in the shared room, while Cat and Jasper are sitting on the floor, building the lego set on the living room table.

They seem to be in their own world, so Beck feels able to say, without them overhearing: "You must be relieved that they survived." He certainly is.

Jade shortly looks over to Jasper and Cat, before she cocks an eyebrow at Beck: "Did you think they wouldn't?"

Didn't she?

Jade smirks, before Beck can say anything: "Why were you worried?"

Of course she understands that he worried without him having to say so.

He shrugs and answers honestly: "I think you just never know with Cat."

Jade seems to be amused about it. As if she loved Beck thinking so. As if it would be great fun for her that Beck didn't trust Cat with things like this. She still answers in an earnest voice: "She's good with Jasper."

"I see that," he responds because he does, even now as he looks over to them and can watch them having the greatest time, building lego together, but also notices Cat always letting Jasper do the actual building and letting him make the decisions if they build it like the instructions say or if he wants to go more creative about it.

Is she actually... taking care of him? Making sure he's having the best time ever? Is she able to see the little boy and all his feelings so well while she otherwise... No, Beck doesn't think she's ignorant. But she's naive and yes, childlike, and therefore doesn't always notice what's going on around her. She does notice Jasper.

"And it surprises you?" Jade checks.

"A bit," Beck confesses. "It didn't you?"

"No," Jade says and Beck believes her though he barely can. "She's basically a kid which makes Jasper adore her. But she also loves him, so she wouldn't allow anything to a happen to him. Even if it meant giving her own life."

The last bit is of course a bit crass but... that's the way Jade thinks. She actually wouldn't trust anybody with her little brother if she wouldn't believe they would kill or die for him, he guesses.

She herself loves like that. When she loves someone, she's always ready to kill anyone for them. As a last resort, she would also die for them, Beck knows.

Beck feels blessed that he's one of those people that she loves. Cat is too.

"Is that why you befriended her? Because you saw that she loves the way you do?" he checks. Possibly not exactly the way, maybe Cat would prefer dying over killing for another person, but now as he starts thinking about it, he isn't even too sure about that.

Just with those few words, Jade opened up a whole other perspective on Cat for Beck. Because, yes, now that she said so, Beck sees that Cat is a person who would give anything for the people she loves. As carefree and childlike as she is, as much as she doesn't notice what's going on around her... When she loves someone, she protects him, at all costs. Like Jade. Without second guessing, without hesitation, without looking if there was an easier way out for themselves.

Jade snorts. "Me befriending her, right."

Well, she did at one point, didn't she?

"Yeah, how did that happen anyway?" Beck asks. Because he doesn't know and has wondered for some time.

They all started at Hollywood Arts at the same time and met at the same time. Everyone must've known some of the other students from their middle schools but neither of them actually kept to them as neither of them were friends with those students who came from the same middle school.

But it also wasn't like Beck and Jade immediately had something going on. Well... they found each other attractive right away and soon went on their first date but by the time they got together and actually talked about everything, Jade and Cat were long friends. Best friends. Even when they went on their first date, the two of them already seemed like friends, if Beck stops and thinks about it.

Jade looks at him for a moment, thinking about the question, then she answers honestly, because she's always honest with him: "For some reason she... stuck to me. She was always around and wouldn't stop bothering me."

"And?" Beck makes because that can't be the whole story. There has to be more as this doesn't explain why Jade befriended Cat. It's not like you just need to be persistent with her.

Jade shrugs. "And I noticed that... she was a genuine person and... well... that her happiness wasn't pretend."

And that's what she likes. She likes people who don't pretend in their day to day lives but who are just who they are.

And though she generally doesn't like it when people are happy all the time or even most of the time, she feels differently about Cat's happiness. Because it's genuine all around. It's pure and true and... Jade might be drawn to it like a moth to light.

Beck smiles and wants to say exactly that, being sure that Jade will smirk and call him an ass for comparing her to a moth, when they suddenly get interrupted by no other than Cat herself. "What are you guys talking about?"

Cat and Jasper approach the kitchen counter, Jasper with a lego airplane in his hand, flying it through the air on the way over.

"Our next date," Beck is quick to respond. He knows how uncomfortable it is for most people to be caught talking about someone else by that very same person – and how uncomfortable it can be for that person to catch someone talking about them.

The thing is that Jade isn't having any of that. She just doesn't care at all and therefore says, looking at Beck slightly irritated at first: "We didn't. We talked about how the two of us became friends." She implies herself and Cat.

"Oooh, that was an exciting day!" Cat immediately responds, clapping her hands happily.

Now she's the one at whom Jade looks irriated. "Day?" Jade asks sceptically.

Cat nods. "The day we met."

That doesn't solve Jade's irritation in the slightest. "We didn't became friends the day we met."

Cat isn't offended though she often is. Instead she seems resolute as she says: "You became mine."

Well, and Beck has to ask as Jade apparently never did: "So why did you stuck to Jade from the beginning on?"

"Because she was honest with me," Cat answers. " She was honest and mean, but not cruel. She never pretended about anything with me."

"Why would she have pretended?" Jasper asks curiously, having listened to their conversation.

Cat looks at him as if he's the most precious thing: "Exactly, little Jasper!"

Of course Jasper isn't into pretending anything. He is Jade's little brother after all.

And Cat asks him, changing the topic, excited: "What are we going to do now?"

"Don't you have to go home?" Jade questions with a cocked eyebrow.

"No," Cat answers. "I told my parents I'd stay the night!"

"Pajama party!" Jasper shouts out gleefully and he and Cat high five while Cat screams out: "Yes!"

Jade slightly shakes her head but doesn't protest. She seems fine with Cat just deciding to stay like this.

She does turn to Beck, while Cat tells Jasper about all the fun things they could do tonight and asks him what he feels like: "Will you stay too?"

Will he stay overnight? Gosh, how much he would love to.

"I don't think my parents will allow it," he has to answer though.

Jade rolls her eyes. "As far as I gather we will sleep in a room with my little brother and with Cat. There would happen less than with the two of us alone in their house while they are at work."

"That's reasonable but my parents aren't," Beck reminds her.

"Your parents are so lame," Jade snorts.

They are, Beck has to agree. So it's more than fine for him that Jade thinks that way. Just: "As long as you don't find me lame."

Jade smirks. "Still deciding," she claims, before she leans forward and kisses him, long and close and still with that smirk on her lips that Beck loves so much.

From then on, he himself starts to grow much closer to Cat, because he finally starts to see what Jade sees. That pureness that Jade drives in Cat's direction.

And how amazing that the best friends were drawn to each other by their honesty. Jade to Cat because of her honest happiness and Cat to Jade because of her dry honesty. How amazing that Jade can now trust Cat with her own life or – eve more precious to her – that of her little brother because, just like her, Cat loves deeply and without compromise.


End file.
